STAVELY, Alberta — Three Southern Alberta Mustangs junior hockey gamers had been killed Monday morning in a automobile crash whereas heading to apply.
RCMP stated it responded to the crash at an intersection with Freeway 2 in Stavely — about an hour’s drive south of Calgary. JJ Wright and Cameron Casorso, each 18 and from Kamloops, British Columbia, and 17-year-old Caden Effective of Birmingham, Alabama, had been killed.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, in a social media put up, provided condolences to the gamers’ households and teammates.
“The entire Alberta hockey household is standing with you in sorrow and in prayer,” Smith stated. “Within the days forward, I do know Albertans will wrap these households and this staff in love and help as they navigate a ache nobody ought to ever need to bear.”
RCMP stated the crash concerned a northbound semi truck pulling gravel and a small passenger automobile going east. The motive force of the semi, a 40-year-old man from Stavely, sustained minor accidents.
The U.S. Premier Hockey League staff stated on Fb that it’s working carefully with authorities and is asking for privateness for the gamers’ households.
“There aren’t any phrases that may adequately specific the depth of our grief,” the staff stated. “These younger males had been greater than hockey gamers — they had been teammates, sons, brothers, buddies, and deeply cherished members of our Mustangs household and the communities we name dwelling. We’re a household, and as we speak our household is hurting.”
On the city’s area, three white and purple jerseys with the final names of the gamers had been draped over a desk, together with three upright hockey sticks.
The Kamloops Minor Hockey Affiliation stated in an announcement that Casorso and Wright grew up within the B.C. group. Casorso performed from 2012 to 2025 and Wright from 2011 to 2025.
“Though their journeys started right here in Kamloops, they discovered a second hockey household and a brand new bond with the Southern Alberta Mustangs,” the assertion stated. “These three younger males had been teammates and buddies to many. We’re grieving collectively, as one hockey household perpetually modified by the lack of these younger males.”
The Calgary Flames of the Nationwide Hockey League additionally provided help on social media: “Our ideas and prayers are with everybody who knew them,” the staff stated.
Information of the crash evoked recollections of one other lethal crash involving a junior hockey staff.
In April 2018, 16 folks had been killed and 13 injured when a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League crashed. The staff had been on its method to a playoff sport when a semi truck went by a cease signal and into the trail of the bus at a rural intersection close to Tisdale, Saskatchewan.
The mayor of Humboldt expressed condolences to the Alberta staff on Fb.
“We stand along with your neighborhood as you mourn this tragic loss, and our ideas are with all these affected,” Mayor Rob Muench stated.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
